She held some of the most significant - and challenging positions -- during the financial crisis.

As CEO of Citi's (C - Get Report) wealth management business, Krawcheck oversaw the newly purchased Smith Barney division, as well as its private banking. She was let go in 2008 when she argued that clients should be reimbursed for defective investments made by Citi wealth management's brokers and bankers.

Then CEO Vikram Pandit disagreed.

She went on to run Merrill Lynch when it was acquired by Bank of America (BAC - Get Report) in 2009.

But newly appointed CEO Brian Moynihan restructured her out in 2011.

But she wasn't going to let any of that keep her down.

"Hell effen no!" she says.

So she keeps getting up - she keeps rising.

This time she is #AlphaRising and is on a mission to help women close the gender investing - and retirement -- gap by "redefining investing for women."

"It's not that we invest differently from men. It's more about how we just do nothing" when it comes to investing, she says.

So she co-founded Ellevest, a digital investment platform aimed at helping women stop the inertia.

And she is selling her mission to professional community. She recently received $34.6 million in funding the likes of Salesforce Ventures (CRM - Get Report) , Morningstar and Mellody Hobson president of Ariel Investments to name a few.

Throw in the first $10 million she got from the people like Mohamed El-Erian and Venus Williams back in 2015, and she's up to $44.6 million.

"So we have work to do," says Krawcheck, as CEO of Ellevest.

Robo advisors, or a digital investment platforms, provide financial advice or portfolio management online with moderate to minimal human intervention, based on mathematical rules or algorithms.

And there are over 100 of them out there these days - with firms like Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW - Get Report) , Vanguard, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD - Get Report) , all diving in.

And while Ellevest's management fee is 0.5%, slightly higher than some of the others, she is jargon-free, quite hilarious and speaks to directly to women.

With over $25 million in assets under management, her participating women don't seem to mind the higher fee.

"Because you have more opportunity to live the life you want if you have more money," says Krawcheck. So closing the gender investing gap is key.

One of the most poignant parts of our interview, at the Ellevest office in midtown Manhattan, occurred when she talked about her kids.

"I didn't hide the downs from the them," she said. "They kept checking on me after I was fired...so I knew I was going to get back up and fight partly for them."

And so she channels her kids when faced with difficult decisions at work. "If my kids were standing next to me, as I make these decisions, what would I want them to see me do?"

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